Ratigan's sponsor "Nucor Steel" of Seattle ( he did a big piece on it the other day)

[SoCalDem]

Bragged about the wonder work this "niche" steel operation "right in the middle of downtown Seattle"..Goll-eeee-Gee-Whiz

What he DIDN'T say:

Nucor is the "modern incarnation" of:



wait for it....





BETHLEHEM Steel ..employed THOUSANDS
Click to see what it USED to be

and when it closed down:
http://articles.mcall.com/keyword/bethlehem-steel

Bethlehem Steel
By Compiled from news service | August 2, 1984
Bethlehem Steel has signed a letter of intent to sell its West Seattle plant to CEM Associates, the Kirkland, Wash., insurance firm says. CEM would not give the exact figure on the mill's sale but said the entire transaction would require about $100 million. A Bethlehem Steel spokeswoman said would not comment on the report of the agreement "because negotiations are still taking place" and she couldn't confirm it because "it didn't come from Bethlehem Steel." Robert Wilkins, vice president of finance, said earlier this year that Bethlehem Steel hopes to raise $150 million in cash this year through the sale of assets.

Wilkins also said he hoped the company could raise 40-50 percent of that total from the sale of the West Seattle plant . . .


........................................

NEWS
Bethlehem Steel: Injustice and confusion
By The Morning Call | April 6, 2003
CEOs are overpaid! An April 1 story reported that Bethlehem Steel CEO Robert S. Miller Jr. earned $900,000 in 2002. At the most vulnerable time in retirees' lives, we are on the telephone for hours trying to talk to a person, to no avail, to get information on a health care replacement plan and sitting at seminars. People are confused and angry. What's wrong with this picture?

............................................


and now we come to Nucor.. better than NOTHING, but not nearly what it replaced

Nucor .. 290 employees at start-up..less now
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2002/05/20/daily20.html
Nucor buying Birmingham's West Seattle steel mill
Puget Sound Business Journal - by Steve Wilhelm
Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2002, 2:30pm PDT


The proposed buyer of Birmingham Steel Corp.'s assets plans to keep its huge West Seattle factory, and a local Birmingham executive says all 290 workers can expect to keep their jobs.

Nucor Corp. of Charlotte, N.C., said Tuesday it has signed a letter of intent to purchase most of Birmingham Steel's assets, for $615 million in cash. The deal isn't expected to close until the end of the year, after review by the Federal Trade Commission and creditors of the Birmingham, Ala.-based seller.

and right on schedule, a few years later?
Thursday, February 12, 2004

Mayor's bid to give steel maker a break on power rates is questioned
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/160341_nucor12.html
By KATHY MULADY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A proposal by Mayor Greg Nickels to give Nucor Steel a break on its electrical rates raised sparks from some members of the City Council's energy committee yesterday, as well as from representatives of manufacturing and industrial businesses. Some questioned why one business was being singled out for a rate break.

Others asked whether it was fair for residential ratepayers and small business owners to make up the difference by paying more on their Seattle City Light bills. "I think this opens the door to very serious rate wars between different categories of users," Councilman Nick Licata said. "Nucor is the most profitable steel company in America; why are we subsidizing it?" he added. "We have to deal with them fairly, but they are not struggling or closing." Some council members also were irked that the mayor worked on the new contract with Nucor for six months and is pushing the council to adopt it quickly.

snip

Under the new contract proposed by Nickels, Nucor would pay between $42 and $49 per megawatt-hour in 2004. Other industrial customers pay about $55 or more per megawatt-hour. Unlike other customers, Nucor -- the city's largest user of electricity -- has agreed to allow the city to interrupt its power for up to 184 hours a month if necessary. Service wasn't interrupted in 2002 or 2003.

Nickels said the reduced rates for Nucor would help assure that the steel company's 285 jobs stay in Seattle. "We want to be here for the long run," said Doug Jellison, general manager at Nucor. The West Seattle steel mill has been operating under the original agreement, reached between Birmingham Steel and the city in 2001 when electrical rates and costs were soaring and Birmingham was in financial trouble. Birmingham eventually was sold to Nucor, which continued to receive the city's reduced rates.

While Birmingham was working out reduced City Light rates in 2001, residential rates climbed 58 percent that year. Last month, the payback clause kicked in to reimburse City Light for the earlier rate breaks. When that happened, Nucor's rate jumped to about $63 per megawatt-hour. It was originally agreed that the steel company would repay the city $13.3 million by 2008 to make up for the reduced rates. Under the new deal, Nucor instead would pay $9 million right now if it can get the lower rate.

snip

[FreakinDJ]

1. Bethlehem Steel employed 13,000 at its peak - Nucor 500

but this is more the effects of automation and newer processes

Here - these guys know a lot more about it then i do
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/manufacturing-america-europe/

[Generic Other]

2. "to allow the city to interrupt its power for up to 184 hours a month if necessary"

what exactly does that mean? that sounds kinda like a brownout?

[Curmudgeoness]

3. That statement caught my attention too. My question

was "why did they think they would have to interrupt their power?" That agreement is meaningless and not worth a penny if there would be no reason for an interruption. Now, if you were in a place where high useage occurs frequently and this would be necessary, that is another story.

And I would think it would be more like a blackout. Service interrupted. No power. But I do not believe for a minute they ever expected to have to live up to this part of the agreement. Can you imagine the amount of money they would lose in 184 hours? That would be over a week of lost production.

[FreakinDJ]

4. No its "Load Shedding" and even residential users do it in NJ

they come out and put a little box on your Electric Dryer and Hot Water Heater and when the grid starts to suffer from peak demand they can send a signal threw the electrical grid itself and tell the little box to shut off your dryer and heater

Larger facilities like Nucor need an orderly shut down so the facilities themselves dictate which loads are shed. Usually through the use of an Automated system

Participation in the program will give the rate payer a "Reduced Rate" over all of maybe 10%.

[doc03]

5. Nucor steel exists because they are anti-union

they got their start in the right-to-work south back in the 70s.

[madrchsod]

6. i worked for the largest electric arc melt shop in the usa

during the summer we could run one out of three furnaces during the day and two at night. during the winter we could run all three anytime we wanted. if we ran three in the summer we would collapse the system.the nuke plant 30 miles away could`t keep up on the power these furnaces used.

sounds like nocur want`s the people to lose their air conditioners and other appliances to make sure they keep their mills running. yes nucor made it a policy to never unionize.